Russian serial killer ‘werewolf’ accused of killing 82 women

A Russian serial killer dubbed the “werewolf” may have killed as many as 82 women in a historic reign of terror, authorities say.

Mikhail Popkov was first arrested in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 22 women. He later confessed to 20 more slayings, and the newest charges against him include 60 counts of murder.

Popkov, from the eastern Siberian city of Angarsk, might be Russia’s biggest serial killer in the last 100 years. Cops have for years been investigating murders in the Irkutsk region where dozens of women were raped and killed.

Prosecutors began reading out the charges on Wednesday and adjourned the hearing until Monday.

“I had a family. My wife and daughter considered me a good husband and father, which corresponded to reality,” he told investigators, according to the Independent.

However, he also confessed to having a “double life,” according to the daily Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He worked as a police officer.

“In one life I was an ordinary person … In my other life I committed murders, which I carefully concealed from everyone, realizing that this was a criminal offense,” he said, according to the newspaper.

He said one of his many victims was a teacher at his daughter’s music school.

“Her corpse was found in the forest along with the body of another woman,” he said, according to the Independent. “My daughter asked me to give her money, because the school was collecting to organize funerals. I gave [IT TO]her.”